


Warrior of Ash and Ancient Stone

by LaptopLocked



Category: Hermitcraft RPF, Minecraft - Fandom
Genre: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Multi, Nether Update, Nether Warriors AU, Pesky Birds, The Nether (Minecraft), Warrior Grian, hermitcraft au, hoglins, nether warrior grian, piglins, the Nether update
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-30
Updated: 2020-06-30
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:09:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24996643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LaptopLocked/pseuds/LaptopLocked
Summary: A younger Grian wakes up after his world is destroyed to find himself in a strange Nether with no portal and no access to obsidian. Convinced it’s a dream or he’s doomed since nothing can live in the nether, he decides to explore a bit. He finds strange blocks and altered soul sands, eerie sounds echoed through the cavern he found himself in, he begins his journey, his way illuminated by unnatural sapphire fire.
Relationships: Charles | Grian & GoodTimesWithScar, Charles | Grian & Steffen Mossner | Docm77, Charles | Grian & Xisumavoid, Oliver Brotherhood & Charles | Grian & Viktor | Iskall85
Comments: 2
Kudos: 97





	1. Novice Beginnings

**Author's Note:**

> So yeah.
> 
> I’m back with another Grian AU + Headcanons...
> 
> Yes I’m still obsessed with this gremlin even two years later.
> 
> But I, and Grian noticed something.
> 
> In his recent episodes he encounters the Chiseled Polished Blackstone. Similar to the Chiseled sandstone, it has a face on it. Only it’s not a creeper or nether mob (it could be but I can’t tell), but it looks exactly like Grian... only with out the iconic Fringe.
> 
> So I give you this straight from my brain. The Nether Warrior AU.

Waking up is strange when you know you’re not supposed to be able to wake up. That you’re entire existence should have been shread and sprinkled along nearby worlds. 

But no, instead he wakes up. He wakes up hot, sweaty and laying on an uncomfortable gravel like surface. 

His eyes slowly open, the dry heat making his eyes ache with the lack of moisture, obscuring his vision. 

He notices little puffs of white floating around his head in a flurry, some of the hot sticky substance lands on his jumper (which he really wished wasn’t on right now) heating him up further.

With a groan and monumental effort he decides to sit up, red gravel falling from his hair into his lap. He winces as he picks it up. Red gravel, over whelming heat and an uneasy feeling hitting him up the teeth.

This must be the Nether.

Which does not in any way make sense, due to the fact that it’s impossible to spawn in the nether normally, never mind after you’re flung away from your imploding single player world and crash landing into this worlds border. 

He had noticed a lot of damage being done to his world. Well, his old world. Craters too large for even a super charged creeper to make, burned forests and swamps, a strange sickness spreading to his crops and animals and strange pieces of black cracked armour left at the exposed lava pools.

His world had been slowly dying, before it began to crack at the seems all together. Despite his sadness at seeing his world deteriorate and die, he did approve of the dramatic ending.

Shaking himself he raises to his feet, gazing about at this strange biome he’s come across. A rather flat plain spreads across the cavern, with shifting soul sand that moves past him in slow drawling waves, random fires sprouting across the horizon, bathing the whole area in a deep blue light which further up looks purple due to the light refracting through the red atmosphere.

Grian does a slow twirl, finding nothing but the same view the whole way around.

At least until he spots a dark block jutting out relatively close to him. He approaches it, feet sinking into the sand, almost trying to consume him, and notices the texture that makes the block seem like a one of the many workbenches he uses, only deeper, darker, more mystical and a greater relation to the empty end portals that he had yet to fill in his old world.

He reaches out his hand to feel the block, shocked by the almost freezing feel of the stones, the glowing grooves nearly visibly emitting cool air vapours, a sizzling crackle as the temperature of the block and environment try to equalise with no results. 

It seems to be turned off.

With no way to budge the block or pick it up, the player decides to just mark where it was just in case, collecting and pushing the strange wavy soul sand into a large unnatural pile that juts out from the smooth landscape.

He dusts off his hands and jumper, then deciding to just remove the clothing to tie around his waist, leaving him in an undershirt, sweat stains and the smeared ashy sand staining it.

With nothing else to do he decides to trek slowly through the sand toward where the red atmosphere seems the most dense. That could only mean one thing. Lava. And a lot of it.

His rough plan is to find a Nether Fortress and pray for an assembled portal to be there, or at least the obsidian to make one, even though he knows the likely hood of that happening is extremely slim, it’s his only hope now.

It’s either that or he starves and dies.

—————————————————————————-

After half an hour through his trek Grian comes upon a ledge overlooking a large lava ocean with a shadowy building in the distance built into the terrain, barely visibly through the light and ash. Believing it to be a small fortress, Grian begins circling through the last of the soul sand to the nether rack ledges, making his way to the oddly shaped castle. 

As he was climbing a tall hill of nether rack he spots something glinting within the compact rocks that make up the floor. It looks like an ore but not the quartz that he’s used to! Curious but without a pick axe he scratches at the heated ore, a small chunk coming loose from the crumbly rock, heating the palm of his hand.

It was gold. He was holding a gold nugget.

With hope that maybe someone else was in the nether and just had some of their boots melted (and also judging them for wearing gold boots), he jogs the rest of the way to the obelisk like castle.

As he approaches what he believes to be a backside entrance he noticed the material. It has the colour of damp ash and the texture of jungle temple stone, only much more decrepit. If he was fully equipped and not stranded in this strange Nether then Grian would have been ecstatic at a new block. Except in this situation it just leaves him uneasy. Left with the choice of exploring the building or going further into the caverns, the player decides to take his chances inside, praying for obsidian despite him having no way to mine it.

Inside is just as eerie as the outside, perhaps more so due to the strange groans and oinks from what must be Zombie Pigmen. He creeps along the crumbling corridors, worn down not due to age but due to shoddy building.

This is not a fortress.

He comes across a chest in a closed off hallway, the groans louder as if just a room away.

Convinced that he’s safe as long as he doesn’t accidentally swing his fists and hit a pigman, he opens the chest with relative confidence, hoping for tools or even some food.

Nothing. Just a bowel and some string. Which he swipes and puts in his inventory anyway.

His train of thought is cut off when he hears a loud aggressive squeal from the beginning of the hallway, a grotesque piggish man dressed in shabby cloth, a scratched gold helmet and wielding an enchanted gold sword. Grian backs up quickly, scrambling against the wall as he retreats from the encroaching enraged person. Animal. Thing.

With the dead end approaching Grian searches for any weakness in the worn bricks that he could take advantage of. Spotting an area where glints of lava peaks through large cracks Grian then speeds up, hunching his back and using shoulders as a battering ram he near blows a hole in the bricks, just big enough for him to wriggle out of.

Climbing out feet first he’s just swinging his lower legs over the open lava ocean when he’s yanked from behind, the terrifying mob squealing in his ear. As he grips the outside ledge with his legs and tries to shove away the disgusting hands gripped around his arms and hair a small ‘tink’ is heard, the small nugget of gold he had fiddled with skitters on the floor, hitting the aggressive mobs shin. 

Grian has barely noticed the nugget dropping, but as soon as it settled near the two brawlers, the grotesque pig like man paused to stare at the nugget, snout twitching in supposed interest. Much to the confusion and great relief of Grian, the thing let’s go of him and the sword he would use to chop him up, trotting over on mutated hooves to bend down and use an unexpectedly gentle motion to pinch up the tiny nugget, letting out a strange cooing snort as it bows its head to get a better look at the nugget cradled in his palm.

Due to the angle of his lumpy, oval head the gold helmet perched on top slips off and clangs against the ground loudly, rolling to a noisy stop near Grian, who is still half out the gap in the bricks, watching and panting in shock.

Despite the noise, the pig continues to admire the piece of ore, leaving the panicked player enough time to catch his breath and swipe up the enchanted weapon, sheathing it in his makeshift jumper belt. Just as he was about to make his escape he paused to pick up the discarded armour, tucking it under his arm.

This motion apparently jolted the creature out of its admiration, floppy ears twitching and turning with a snarl to the young player, beginning to charge once again.

Clumsily Grian shimmies out of the hole, turning his whole body in order to grip at a large crack below his escape. 

The once again aggressive mob launches through the hole with a loud snarl. Or at least it would have if it’s pudgy torso didn’t get stuck. It’s single free arm swung at Grians head, screaming and squealing in rage at the thievery.

Grian ducks and decides to take his chances and let’s go of the crack, dropping like a stone to avoid the swinging arm. As he falls he gasps, the helmet comes loose from his grip, careening down with him. In a quick manoeuvre that he would later be smug about Grian scrabbles and grabbed a jutting out brick with his left hand whilst simultaneously wildly swinging his legs, managing to hook the tip of the helmet with his right foot.

Using some impressive core strength and his left arm, Grian manages to solidly grip the helmet and plop it on his head. Much to the still stuck mobs frustration.

With the strength in his arms waining and the brick shifting loose, Grian swings to the next gripable brick, a few feet below him and close to a nether rack ledge. His nails scrap painfully across the stone, tearing into his finger tips. Dropping his full weight and momentum onto the brick causes a sharp shooting pain to travel along his shoulder and fingers. Thankfully the brick stays tightly in the wall despite his whole weight being on one brick. Then with a slight rock of his legs, sword clanging noisily against the wall, Grian launches the 12 foot drop to the ledge, chest making impact with the very edge, knocking the wind out of him as he scrabbles for a last time to solid ground, flopping on the heated rock with very little grace, the stolen sword jutting into the small of his back painfully and the loose fitting helmet clanking off his head a short distance away.

Taking a moment to relax and breathe, Grian listens to the now grumbling squeals and snorts from his attacker, still stuck and hanging forlornly over the lava ocean. 

With a final ash filled breath Grian hefts himself into a kneeling position, reaching over to retrieve the fallen helmet as he stands, staring out across the unfamiliar ocean, taking in all the differences and the similarities to what he once knew.

With a resigned breath he turns and observed his new path, a large cavern filled with lava falls and magma blocks, distant squeals and the cries of ghasts echo through the cursed land. 

Taking his first step foreword his hand raises the helmet to place it neatly on his head.

He’s going to need it after all.


	2. You Can’t Have A Future Without A Past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More background and the official beginning of conflict within the Hermitcraft server.
> 
> The hermits go about their projects, peace and paces, with not a thought in their heads that something huge may occur.
> 
> They’re heads are about to be flipped upside down.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a world building chapter based on my Nether Warriors AU.
> 
> Yes this fic will follow Grian, but I intend to add plenty of more focus characters and hopefully very little OCs, although there may be one or two minor ones.
> 
> Enjoy!

Only now are we coming up to Grians two year anniversary of joining the prestigious and secretly goofy Hermitcraft server, a well protected server filled with some of the best players in this corner of the Open World. Redstoners, Builders, RolePlayers and PVPers all call this server home and fill it with such creativity, imagination and confusion that it would make a normal players head spin.

Grian isn’t the newest addition, not anymore, but he still has a lot to learn about how the world works. Although to his credit he finally has crafting recipes memorised, knows where to get all the materials he wants and is finally beginning to understand the magic electrical powder that is Redstone.

Despite the two long years, it still feels new and fresh in this world. Although that might have to do with the reset. His giant mansion was quick to sprout up, at least the front of it was, and he’s got plenty more ideas to come!

He was actually in the middle of that now, digging down deep into the earth to create the basis of his new project.

With a single swing of his pick axe he can be rid of nearly a whole row of stone, the haste beacon imbuing his pick axe with untold sharpness and magnified force, treating the stone as if it was styrofoam against a hot knife.

Despite the ease he was clearing the stone, sweat still stuck to his brow and soaked his rolled up sleeves, soft grunts and sighs as he works his way to a new stone layer.

He’s been at this for a few hours now, but he’s thankful to have this much progress done in such a short amount of time. Of course that was mainly due to the over abundance of TNT that he used. Maybe more than he should have. Despite the speed of his beacon, sometimes blowing it up was faster. Also more fun.

With a final huff he decides to take a break, half-way through the column he was carving away at. Holstering his pick axe, which loses some but not all of its glow, he walks over to one of his purple shulker boxes he had placed earlier. Tapping the lid it floats up, allowing him to deposit all of the material he had saw fit to collect, after all he still had a few spots to fill in his mansion.

He reaches his hand into the boxes strange misty portal after he’s finished unloading to lift out the water bottle he’d left there, kept chill by the shulker due to the End properties it contains. 

It’s basically a mini fridge. Doc or Xisuma would be frustrated by his way of thinking and would probably give him a lecture on the properties of End Materials, but you also can’t say he’s wrong. It DOES act like a fridge.

Tapping the lid again he decides to use it as a seat, he hops on and uncorks the water bottle, pouring a small amount into his other hands palm, slapping his wet hand to his face in an effort to cool down and to wipe away the sweat.

A final sigh escapes the builder as he leans back on his hands, letting his fingers tap lightly on the shulkers surface, basically levitating the blond up and down.

Yes it’s silly, but he likes to fidget and press things so sue him.

A giggle escapes him as he realises that if Mumbo and Iskall could they probably would sue him for pressing buttons.

Just the thoughts of his fellow hermits make him smile. He’s been to many, many worlds, worlds where he was either all alone or with very few people. 

Of course he had also lived in one of the main worlds, a technical world filled with machines and societies and schools, a place where he gained friends and lost some as he went to school and earned his Barrier passport when he was 17. 

Despite growing up in a prebuilt world, he had hated it. The world was filled and established, nothing creative or abnormal happened there, just simple jobs like store clerks, lawyers and teachers. 

He had been fascinated with the far reaching worlds that one could live in, worlds where there was only nature and raw resources with no prebuilt buildings or societies, where he could build and create to his hearts content. 

But before that he needed to prove he could build and establish a world, and by doing that you need experience. So he was sent to pre-established worlds, where the founding players asked for aid in creating their buildings. He had started out as a simple sand collecter, before moving up to crafting and then being a bulk placer. Two years had passed and he had already gone through 6 worlds before he got the chance to build something on his own. Just a simple house on a suburban street. 

But that was the start of something amazing.

—————————————————————

By the time the sun had set, Grian had finished the column and had started on the second. He wished he could work through the night but he was sure Iskall or Stress would notice and force him to bed. If Scar or Mumbo noticed then they would be hypocrites by telling him to go to bed considering they’re worse than him at sleeping! There’s also the fact that he had yet to light up the massive hole being dug, meaning it’s become another accidental mob farm.

As he entered the cavernous front hall of his mansion he can’t help but be proud of himself. He wasn’t known to be a good redstoner or even a decent one, yet he had managed to stumble his way into making a storage system that somewhat functions. 

He giggles to himself as he settles on the bed in the centre of the room, surrounded by chests, kicking off his boots and unbuckling his rather sturdy work belt that also attaches to his elytra.

It’s strange to think that he was able to build such huge projects like this, especially without the pre-gathered material that he used to pay for in his old worlds. Yet if he’s honest with himself, he enjoys using resources that he himself collected, almost like every block he uses has a large part of himself in it, making this humongous build truly his. 

It may be a silly thought, but he likes that satisfaction that comes with it. After all, not everything he used to build was his.

He’d built homes, shops, malls, skyscrapers, castles and in one memorable world a temple built upside down inside a mountain. He poured his heart and soul into those builds, yet they all belonged to someone else. Of course he was paid accordingly, but that’s where he gave up ownership of his creations and it always hurt.

At the beginning he was mainly copying what was there, since the first time he built a house by himself he started it too far away from the street, he built it in even numbers, didn’t put an overhang on his roof and decided orange carpet was an ok flooring.

Thank god he got better. He got much better. He started getting creative, started developing an eye for good building and implementing it into his builds. Started to learn tricks and ways to make buildings look more solid, started to understand organic building and terraforming.

And that was him only getting started.

Soon his style solidified and people started noticing, specifically asking him for tips or to help on a build. Mostly odd jobs and new world builders. Until he met a map creator. 

These players were hard core in that they delve so fully into a world that it becomes their sole obsession, creating lore and meaning in a world where there once was none. This Map Creator wanted a huge build, a giant tower that no one wanted to help him with. 

Then he asked for Grian.

Grian accepted. 

He spent a whole year in that world, being the sole creator of the tower as the Map Creator starts on his cliff town. Left to his devices Grian built and detailed the tower exactly how it was asked and more, adding his own lore and meaning, pouring his entire soul into every block, stair and button.

At the end stood a magnificent tower, one that later gained many visitors to the world, which delighted the map creator who soon gained popularity and people moving to his world. Grian was paid fairly and handsomely along with getting scouted out by larger world builders, enough so that he could finally do what he had wanted to do for years. His life long dream was to join the World Establishment Program.

The WEP was founded when they realised that once someone entered a world, built on it, lost interest and left without fully establishing the world then a mysterious force would envelop the world, deteriorating it and ripping it apart. No one knows why it happens, but if the world is not maintained or lived in then the very fabric of that world disintegrates, flinging the resources, builds, mobs and even unaware players into the deep end; never to be seen. It is one of the few methods of permadeath known to player kind.

With the destruction of half-filled worlds and even full but somewhat abandoned worlds the WEP was put in place whilst researchers aimed to discover if new worlds were finite or infinite. So far the research has shown no results.

For the WEP Grian had to decide where he would go, since the program has two core avenues to choose from; either Building or Redstone. Of course there is much more to world building than just these two subjects (such as PVP and mini games, terraforming, world specific inventions, villager experts, biome maintenance and the all-important Admin Abilities) but they are all either optional or a part of the two courses. 

Of course Grian knew exactly where he was going. Through the year long course of the Building avenue where he learnt about styles, minimal and monumental building, block palettes, exterior design (which he loved), interior design (which he wasn’t too fussed on), roads and terraforming etc. He already knew most of these, but now he could be considered a master (he couldn’t, to be considered a master you have to take an additional course that takes at least 5 years).

Granted access to any world he would like, he first created the most important thing to world builders. A test world. For every professional builder and redstoner they have at least one world filled with test ideas, 3D sketches, half finished products and the final products. For Grian he filled it with ideas galore, from the tiniest decoration to the largest monument, he built it.

Then his world hopping began, over the course of a year he started and maintained 3 worlds, one filled to the brim with rustic villages, castles and dungeons; another he filled with both modern and futuristic skyscrapers, technology, and even designing space travel. Many, many normal players live in these worlds now, continuing to make it flourish.

The third one...

Well, the third one is forgotten by all except one.

And that’s the way it will stay. Of that Grian is sure.

Realising his thought process has gone down somewhat of a dark path he continues to get ready for bed, flinging on a night shirt then begins cleaning up and repairing his elytra, he had flown into a lot of walls today.

He grabs his elytra kit from the chest next to his bed, laying out the large wings.

Grian may love flying, but he is deeply unsettled by insects, so elytra had always been a thing to avoid for him, doing fine with a horse and some enderpearls for the longest time.

When he had lived in the Main World and the smaller worlds he lived in for work, Elytra were available but for a very high price. It was only when he first got to the end that he got an elytra. He had tried it for a day but was quickly unsettled by the look and feel of the wings.

He only bought the elytra from iJevin two years ago due to peer pressure, the gunning need for constant travel and the discovery that there were different TYPES of Elytra!

Apparently the Elytras sold in the Main Worlds were the most common types, designed like housefly wings or even cicada wings. When they became available last season he started to notice the hermits flying around on butterfly wings, dragonfly wings and even locust wings.

When Jevin gave him his first elytra it was very beautiful and didn’t creep him out too much! Apparently they were Swallowtail butterfly wings with a green iridescent shimmer. Not the best and it certainly didn’t go with his whole outfit, but he couldn’t complain.

As he went through the season he had lost elytra and gained elytra, and even had one of the best available. At the end of last season he had treasured his Death-Head hawk moth elytra, it was a beautiful black and yellow with a vague skull at the connection point on his back. It was the fastest he had ever flown without owning dragonfly wings due to them really creeping him out for some reason.

This season he had another set of Hawk Moth wings, only this time it wasn’t him unsettled by the wings. The rest of the hermits, namely Mumbo and Bdubs, have a strange wariness and hatred for his new wings. They also didn’t like his Death-Head ones but they just joked about him going through an emo phase.

These wings are designed after the Eyed Hawk Moth. When they are folded they are dulled brown and look rather unassuming, resting nicely and warmly against his back. 

It’s when they’re open is the problem.

The lower sections of his elytra are revealed when he spreads them to fly, two dark blue spots surrounded by a light rosy red that blends into the rest of the brown. It gets its name from how these components look, like terrifying dark eyes staring into your soul. He loves them. He used to love documentaries about how animals warned off predators and now he feels like he can do the same. It’s also really funny to make Scar and Mumbo jump by flying over their heads.

Using his kit, he flattens out his Elytra, taking notice of any wires or cables that were wrongly bent. Using forceps and a plier to shape them just right he moves on to the short toothed comb that straightens the short fur like strands.

Not seeing anything else wrong with the wings or belts, he unscrews his half empty oil canister and massages it through the downy fur, making sure to separate them and get all the strands.

Once finished, he hangs it up to dry and climbs into his single bed, tired, aching, exhausted and satisfied.

It will be a long time before he can soundly rest again, as bright purple lights emit across the world, one brightens a mushroom biome, another casts shadows in a desert, a third lights up a plaza of ruins, many beams form across the rainforest and finally, an eerie purple light washes a mansion in colour from atop a tree.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok the WEP is a lot like University only with a few changes, namely the qualifications and the power to own and build on worlds. Yes I also got some of Grians backstory from Yandere High School, but it’s very slight and probably won’t be mentioned a lot in this.
> 
> The Elytra things I thought were very cool, because you always see Grian or someone with like bird wings or mechanical wings for their Elytras, but I also love the thought of those dragonfly or basic insect wings.
> 
> This means I delved into the world of insects and found out that Hawk Moths are the Second fastest Insects, second to dragonflies, but I thought giving Grian dragonfly wings was a bit generic so I found my favourite Hawk Moths and added them to the story! A lot of them are pretty... but I’m not aiming for this story to be pretty. Look up the two mentioned moths, they look insane.
> 
> If you enjoyed or even have any constructive criticism, leave a Kudos and a comment! I’m also open to any story ideas but no promises XD
> 
> SEE YOU NEXT TIME!

**Author's Note:**

> Ok so here’s a few background thoughts that will appear later.
> 
> As we all know, Minecraft Lore is very much up to interpretation, so I like to think that the Nether slowly and gradually changed instead of a big instant update. But it may as well feel instant. Because suddenly players from far off servers begin seeing strange Pigmen, with actual ears and a more human like shape. Then comes the Pigmen that are actual PIG MEN, living breathing Pig people that live in the Nether! With their own language and even trading system when someone accidentally dropped some golden carrots whilst running away. Soon, colony’s of the newly named Piglins spread across the Nether like wild fire, bringing with them agriculture and strange root seeds that they plant, then a few weeks later it’s a whole new biome. Soul sand starts shifting and spreading also, now mobs from the over world spill into the Nether through the sand and strange blue fire.
> 
> Hermitcraft is also hit, despite its world barrier and separate encryption. An entire new world with new blocks, new mobs, new mechanics and even new ore! They are all shocked by the New Nether!
> 
> Except for one. 
> 
> He is a rare player, one that has been further past the Open World Barriers than even the bravest of researchers. Because despite the massive size of these worlds and the amount of players widely spread out, only 9% of the World Plain has been discovered. But that doesn’t stop the other 91% from also exploring.


End file.
